United And Now American Airlines Incidents Show It's Time To Improve Flying Conditions

Demonstrators protest outside the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare International Airport protest the treatment of a passenger, who was dragged from his seat and bloodied by airport police after he refused to leave a reportedly overbooked flight. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

What do you expect when you squeeze irritated people tighter and tighter into a capsule of recirculated air? An unhealthy mix (sort of like the snack bags on some flights). U.S.-based airplane conditions have been getting progressively worse, and recently a series of on-board incidents on U.S.-based airlines have gone viral. You probably have seen the video of 69-year-old Dr. David Dao being literally dragged off a United Airlines flight. Now another video has hit the Internet of a baby, mother and stroller incident and altercation on an American Airlines flight poised to travel from San Francisco to Dallas:

The video shows a female passenger visibly upset and crying about a male flight attendant's actions when another passenger confronts the flight attendant in the passenger's defense. Angry words and then threatening gestures then occurred. No, this was not MMA or Jerry Springer, but it could have been. In response, American Airlines issued the following statement:

We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip. The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.

Maybe American Airlines learned from United Airlines' handling of the handling of Dr. Dao, which reportedly left Dao with a bloodied face, teeth missing, a concussion and public humiliation. Erin McCann reported for the New York Times on the series of statements made by United CEO Oscar Munoz that first didn't even acknowledge or apologize to the customer and included describing Dr. Dao as "disruptive and belligerent," which didn't seem to coincide with what was seen in the video:

These aren't isolated incidents but part of four growing trends: worsening flight conditions on U.S.-based airlines, increasing anger and violence, passengers carrying smartphones, and sharing on social media. Combine these trends and expect more and more disturbing airline videos to emerge and go viral. Who knows? Maybe airline videos will start rivaling cat videos on the Internet.

Just Google "air travel getting worse" and a number of pieces will come up highlighting the increasing unpleasantness of air travel on U.S.-based airlines, such as "Air travel in the U.S. is getting worse" from David Koenig of the Associated Press. Koenig reported on an airline report that reported on the reports of lateness, lost bags, overbooking and customer complaints. Catey Hill wrote for Market Watch in a piece entitled, "Your seating options on airlines just got worse," about four concerning trends that you have to face: paying for worse-than-standard-economy seats, bumpier rides, longer flights and fewer and smaller bathrooms. (Sitting on the toilet in a tiny bathroom can feel like sitting in a toilet.) Jen Quarashi, writing for Mother Jones, added new fees, fewer amenities, stingier reward programs and less legroom as further issues. Plus the food on some of my recent U.S. airline flights have tasted like salt mixed with salt. U.S.-based airlines made three of Travel and Leisure's nine "World’s Worst Airlines for Customer Service," with United Airlines being the largest carrier on the list.

By contrast, U.S.-based airlines are noticeably missing from the lists of world's best airlines. Not a single U.S. airline made the Skytrax 20 best airlines in the world for 2016. Heck, the highest-ranked U.S. airline in the top 100 was Delta at number 35...just three spots above easyJet (yes, easyJet). United was number 68, one spot after Sri Lankan Airlines. American Airlines at 77 was sandwiched by Ethiopian Airlines and Peach...not a real peach, but Peach Airlines. Over half of the top ten airlines were Asia-based.

Add to this mix the increase in anger, hate, confrontations and violence that seems to be occurring in the U.S. recently in general. (Take any episode of Friends and make it completely opposite, and that's what appears to be occurring now.) NBC News reported on how hate crimes in the U.S. increased by 20% in 2016 and that this was fueled by the presidential election. Alexis Okeowo also warned in the New Yorker about "hate on the rise." Airlines need to beware that airplanes can be an additional catalyst or release point for brewing anger. Jessica Prois wrote for the Huffington Post about how even though it isn't clear if Dr. Dao was targeted because he was Asian American (and still is), the incident "gave Asians license to speak out about discrimination" such as bullying, poor portrayal in the media, the stereotype that Asian Americans will not fight back against being treated unfairly, and the "bamboo ceiling" (as exemplified by Clio Chang in a New Republic piece). Add to this the seeming monthly or at times weekly protests going on this year. Folks, if you haven't figured it out, the U.S. population does not seem to be at a happy place right now.

Packing more and more angry people into planes could be a recipe for confrontations and even violence. (Try irritating a bunch of hamsters and then squeezing them into a tennis ball can and see what happens.) Stephanie Robertson for the New York Times quoted Congressman Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) as saying, "People have gotten larger since seats were shrunk" in her piece "Fighting the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat." Robertson said that Cohen pointed out how seat sizes have shrunk since deregulation in the 1970s. Indeed, my trip this past week from Washington, D.C., to Tokyo illustrated a vast difference between the United flight that I took out to Tokyo and the ANA Airlines flight back. ANA Airlines, a Japanese company, provided substantially larger seats and in my opinion a much more pleasant flying experience than United, ranging from more spacious seating to better customer service.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) came in number 5 on last year's World's Top Airlines List, only 63 spots ahead of United Airlines. This past week, I flew to Tokyo on United and back to Washington, DC, on ANA and the difference was striking... (Photo: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

Are there any signs that the U.S. airlines are dealing with these troubling trends? Well, as David Morris for Fortune reported, last year, the Senate voted down a minimum seat size proposal for U.S. airlines. Also, Lance Lambert has warned for Bloomberg that the four largest airlines' "monopoly-like grip on U.S. air travel" has given customers fewer alternatives and thus airlines fewer incentives to improve flying conditions.

While the Dr. Dao dragging incident seems bad, things could get a lot worse, unless real change occurs with flying conditions. What if a confrontation leads to much worse than a concussion and missing teeth? Could one day an all-out brawl or riot occur? Watching Jerry Springer on television may be OK, but... History is replete with examples of industries, organizations and people that have failed to change until disaster or massive disruption occurred. Just look at the Detroit auto industry before the Japanese auto industry shook it up, the telecommunications industry before the Internet and cell phones went mainstream, emergency response before Hurricane Katrina and airline safety before 9/11. Moreover, portable video recording devices and social media make it much easier for bad publicity to go viral. While customers may feel like they have few options now, they do have choices when flying internationally or could simply choose not to fly, especially with more videoconferencing options and camera phones...which, as we've seen, can come in handy even when they do fly.

I’ve been in the worlds of business, medicine, and global and public health. And these worlds are a lot more similar and different than you think. Currently, I am an Associate Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Executiv...